The papers included in this yearbook of the Finnish Society of Applied Linguistics (AFinLA) were presented at the 1998 AFinLA conference "Linguistics and Finland: Crossing the Gulf." Papers are in Finnish, Estonian, or English, but all have accompanying English abstracts. The topics discussed in the papers include the following: speed…

A collection of essays on first and second language proficiency from the fields of psychology and linguistics includes the following: "Modeling and Assessing Language Proficiency" (John H. A. L. de Jong, Ludo Verhoeven); "The Construct of Grammar in Early Language Development" (Folkert Kuiken); "Dimensions in Grammatical Proficiency" (Wim H. J.…

The report summarizes findings of a pilot study of 1985 graduates of bilingual high school programs at the University of Ottawa and Carleton, Queen's, and McGill Universities. Data on French language proficiency, attitudes toward the French language, and current patterns of French use at the universities are compared for early and late immersion…

This profile of the English language teaching situation in Norway discusses the role of English in the community and within the educational system. The discussion of English in elementary and secondary education covers compulsory education, the various curricula at the secondary level, examinations at all levels, and the aims and goals of the…

In the communicative approach, English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners use scripted and unscripted language. In practice, scripted language is typically over-utilized at the expense of unscripted language. This study explores the characteristics of scripted and unscripted language in 11 beginner-level EFL students in a Japanese junior high…

This thematic unit was written by Michele Montas and Luz Cannon, middle school Spanish teachers, who were participants in a summer institute held at the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center in 2001. The institute, called "Temas Anejos: Recurring Themes in Ancient and Modern Latin America," brought together a talented group of professors.…

This study investigated the characteristics of effective English teachers as perceived by 169 teachers and 339 students in high school in Korea, with a self-report questionnaire consisting of three categories: English proficiency, pedagogical knowledge, and socio-affective skills. Overall, the teachers perceived significantly different…

The group of case studies of family bilingualism examined the influences of maternal and paternal native language, schooling choices, travel and residence choices, and family background on development of bilingualism in the children. The families studied include eight Japanese-English bilingual families (one study including five generations) and…

A discussion of language in preschool education reviews research findings on children's language acquisition and its relationship to their general development and examines issues to be considered in making decisions for each community and program. The first section summarizes basic knowledge about preschool language development, facilitating…

Four years of activities (1978-82) of Hajitkoum (Migrant Cultural Action Group), a predominantly Moroccan multicultural group of young immigrants based in a suburb of Brussels, are described. The group has the ultimate goal of providing the immigrant community with cadres, drawn from its young generations, who will be able to take on political and…

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in English-speaking countries are not usually required to have proficiency in another language. Teacher competency statements frequently require "an understanding of second language development," and it is assumed that a monolingual teacher can attain such understanding without…

As theorized in Anderson's (1983, 1995) associative stage of skill acquisition, errors or obstacles become an important index of the learning process. However, learning obstacles have not been widely researched in the field of language learning strategies. This study explores the difficulties or barriers confronted by the EFL (English as a Foreign…

This study is guided by the following objectives: (1) Assess entering freshmen's pragmatic oral skills in English second semester SY 2004 2005; (2) Describe the learner language respondents in terms of variability of the inter language; (3) Determine the relationship of their language performance "vis-à-vis" high school grade, high…

This profile in outline form of the English language teaching situation in the Gambia discusses the role of English in the community and within the educational system. The number of hours allocated weekly to the teaching of English in the primary school, junior secondary and senior secondary schools and teacher's training college are discussed, as…

This collection of papers includes the following: (1) "A Brief History of American Sociolinguistics 1949-1989" (Roger W. Shuy); (2) "Reflections on the Origins of Sociolinguistics in Europe" (Louis-Jean Calvet); (3) "Models of the Interaction of Language and Social Life" (Dell Hymes); (4) "I Came to Sing:…